Ford expands diesel engine manufacturing capacity; 400,000th engine rolls out of Chennai

17/07/2012 - 18:38 | ,   | Shrawan Raja

Ford India conducted a media event at its manufacturing facility in Chennai today afternoon to celebrate the roll out of the 400,000th locally manufactured engine and to discuss capacity expansion, specifically for diesel engines, to bring down the waiting periods for the Figo and Fiesta Classic.

Michael Boneham kisses the 400000th engine rolling out of ChennaiFord India's Michael Boneham bends to kiss the 400,000th engine rolling out of Chennai

To keep the article from confusing you (as it is a number cruncher) we'll present the story using quick bullet points.

Ford India manufacturing facility expansion plan

  • New machines have been installed at the plant to churn out 80k extra diesel engines per year.
  • The move is to supply enough number of Fiesta Classic Titanium diesel and Ford Figo diesel variants as well as to welcome the EcoSport, Ford India's next major launch.
  • With this increase, the total number of engines rolling out per year has gone up to 340k engines.
  • The engine manufacturing facility had a capacity of 80k units/years in 2008, was expanded to 250k units/year in January 2010 and today stands at 340k engines/year.
  • 40% of engines manufactured in Chennai are for exports - Ford exports engines as well as cars - to the Asia Pacific and African regions.
  • The assembly line at the engine shop is flexible, allowing Ford to make either petrol or diesel.
  • 17 different engine variants are being built at the Chennai plant. Displacements range from 1.2 liters to 1.6 liters.
  • The only engines Ford India outsources are the 2+ liter capacity diesel motors for the Endeavour.
  • The 72 million dollar investment has gone into the expansion - 50% for machines, 25 % for tooling and 10% on logistics.
  • Engines manufactured in Chennai are almost completely localized - components such as the turbocharger, piston, cylinder head, clutch, camshaft, oil pan, water pump and camshaft are sourced from vendors in India.
  • As for the split, 80% of the engine made for the local market is diesel while 90% are petrol engines for export markets.
  • Later this decade, Ford will also cross-ship engines from the Chennai plant to the Gujarat plant; Gujarat will also have an engine facility making both petrol and diesel engines.
  • Ford India's senior management took great pride in announcing the 400,o00th engine manufactured in India. The 400,000th engine is a 1.5-liter Ti-VCT (petrol) engine used on the new Fiesta.

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